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Results for "Johnny Mercer"
Esperanza Spalding Chamber Music Society at Knight Theater
by Mark F. Turner
Esperanza SpaldingKnight TheaterCharlotte, North CarolinaSeptember 24, 2010Having had little exposure to Esperanza Spalding's music, some questions were answered by her visit to the Knight Theater on September 24th. Part of Charlotte's two-day Sunset Jazz Festival, it was the prodigy-turned jazz phenom's first appearance in the city. The concert dovetailed with Chamber ...
Buselli-Wallarab Jazz Orchesta / Vaughn Wiester / Chie Imaizumi
by Jack Bowers
Buselli--Wallarab Jazz OrchestraMezzanineOwl Studios2010 After veering slightly off-course recently with several albums devoted in part to backing singers, the outstanding Indianapolis-based Buselli-Wallarab Jazz Orchestra is back in a more pleasing instrumental groove on Mezzanine, profiling the compositions and arrangements of co-leader / trombonist Brent Wallarab. The first ...
Alex Levin Trio: New York Portraits
by C. Michael Bailey
Artists do not evolve in a vacuum. Collectively, they assimilate all they have learned and heard into a new creative paradigm that they call their own. A durable respect for the past characterizes the trio art of pianist Alex Levin. Listening to his collection New York Portraits, the spirits of pianists long gone are present in ...
Jim Guttmann: Bessarabian Breakdown
by Raul d'Gama Rose
Surely Bessarabian Breakdown is a contender for one of 2010's most interesting albums . It has been a year for a sort of mini-revival of roots music, and klezmer has received wide attention--as much as the blues and other folk music. Against that backdrop, Jim Guttmann's Bessarabian Breakdown must be well received. It is a sleek ...
Kristin Berardi / James Sherlock: If You Were There
by Ian Patterson
The jazz standard repertoire has proven remarkably durable and doesn't seem to be under any immediate threat of being replaced by more recent popular songs. Perhaps they just don't write love songs the way they used to, or it could be simply a question of the weight of jazz tradition holding back a new wave of ...
Kendra Shank Quartet Live At The Saville Theater
by Robert Bush
Kendra Shank QuartetSaville Theater, San Diego City College San Diego, CaJuly 20, 2010 Jazz vocalist Kendra Shank has been a New Yorker for 12 years. She's quite active on the scene, frequently collaborating with pianist Frank Kimbrough. She's released several critically acclaimed albums recently, specifically Mosaic( Challenge 2009), and Spirit ...
Franck Amsallem: Amsallem Sings
by Bruce Lindsay
Thirty years into a career which has seen Algerian-born Frank Amsallem playing piano with musicians as diverse as Joshua Redman, Gary Peacock and Danny Gatton, Amsallem Sings is his debut recording as a vocalist. It's a solo album--Amsallem accompanies himself on piano, without the support of any other players, so that the album stands or falls ...
Nnenna Freelom: Homefree
by Fred Bouchard
Nnenna Freelon can be spotted miles off, like neon or a rainbow. The tall, rawboned, outspoken gal from Cambridge, MA via North Carolina owns a musical persona as unique as her name. She nails her ancient/modern, genre-jumping repertoire, embraces it, inhabits it organically and belts it with a hearty, emphatic attack. You can ...
Lissy Walker: Life Is Sweet
by Bruce Lindsay
Life Is Sweet is the debut from Berkeley, California-based vocalist Lissy Walker. In an increasingly crowded pool of female jazz singers it's important to stand out from the norm: two things about Life Is Sweet ensure that Walker can do that. Firstly, there is Walker's song selection--a tasteful and unusual mix of standards and more left-field ...
Myrna Lake: Yesterdays
by Samuel Chell
Another album by a female vocalist, another familiar playlist. But hold the assumptions. This is the first and only commercial album by septuagenarian singer Myrna Lake, but that's not the real story here. The recording is noteworthy above all because it refuses to mistake youth for vitality, slickness for substance, or newness for originality. ...


